Intermountain Jewish News

A new phenomenon called “twinningism” came to Denver last week, bringing messages of harmony, tolerance and shared social action — as well as one or two reminders why such inter-ethnic cooperation might be needed in the first place.

As part of a national effort to bring Americans Jews and Muslims together for prayer services and a shared commitment to fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, Denver’s version took place Nov. 21 at the Colorado Muslim Society, the combined mosque and community center that serves as headquarters for Denver’s Muslim community.

It was part of a national “Weekend of Twinningism” effort, the product of last year’s National Summit of Imams and Rabbis in New York. The summit was sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, chaired by Rabbi Marc Schneier, chairman of the World Jewish Congress American Section.

Denver was one of 50 communities across the US to participate in the first-ever program.

Joined by a group of his congregants, Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav of Congregation B’nai Havurah was the Jewish community’s point man in this first experiment at inter-communal “twinning.”

Rabbi Booth-Nadav took part in two services at the mosque and then addressed a social hall nearly filled with listeners, mostly Muslims, who paid very close attention to what he had to say.

The rabbi was a logical choice for the assignment. Known for his long advocacy of reaching a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his open-minded and liberal approach to Judaism, Rabbi Booth-Nadav stressed precisely those themes in his talk at the Muslim Society.

“May we soon see in our time the end of all that divides us,” is how he began.

The rabbi emphasized that in theological terms there is much more that naturally unites Muslims and Jews than what divides them. He used a teaching from the Koran to say that all humans were created as equals by G-d, but were given “different paths to G-d” in the form of differing religions.

“The reason for all this division,” he explained, “is so that we can all get to know each other.”

The Torah and Koran agree, Rabbi Booth-Nadav emphasized, that what is most important in human beings is not their specific religion but whether they honor G-d and His word. Both books agree, he said, that all human beings were created in the image of G-d.

“Imagine how it would change the world if all of us, when we see each other coming down the street, said, ‘Here comes the image of G-d.’”

It is an ideal that is seldom realized in modern America, the rabbi acknowledged. Jews, like most Americans, know very little about Islam and Muslims.

Their opinions, he said, are often influenced by media reports of terrorism which usually provide little context and convey the impression that extremist Islam represents the entirety of the religion.

Rabbi Booth-Nadav related how he has worked to study Islam and many of its texts and — even more important — how he has formed close friendships with Muslims, both in Denver and in Israel. Through them, he said, he has learned.

The oft-used Islamic phrase “Allahu Akbar” used to be “a scary thing for me to hear as a Jew,” the rabbi said, since most Americans tend to hear the phrase only when it’s used as the cry of a terrorist.

In reality, Allahu Akbar — which means “G-d is great” — is an ancient Islamic blessing in praise of G-d, and has nothing to do with terrorism or extremism.

“I came to hear Allahu Akbar differently,” the rabbi said. “Can a rabbi say G-d is great? Of course I can, and why would I want to let such a beautiful phrase at the center of a beautiful religion be taken by crazy people?”

Terrorist Muslims represent Islam no more than terrorist Jews represent Judaism, Rabbi Booth-Nadav stated. Such people “hijack” their faiths and do not represent them.
Jews have a special responsibility, he told his listeners, to stand up for Muslims when they are stereotyped or discriminated against.

“We Jews have known for centuries what it’s like to be a tiny minority in a culture that is dominated by fear,” he said. “If anyone should know to stand up to Islamophobia today, it should be Jews.”

Their long history with anti-Semitism, culminating with the Holocaust, should make it plain to Jews that, “we can’t stand idly by when it’s happening to other people.”